Our team dreamed big and came up with a solution
About Us
At LynxIQ, we specialize in AI consulting, data strategy, and analytics-driven innovation that adapts and grows with your business.
We have deep expertise in healthcare, an industry that demands precision, regulatory compliance, and the ability to integrate complex data ecosystems. Our team has worked across the entire healthcare landscape, including providers, benefit managers, insurance, medical management, medical devices, and pharma—giving us a unique perspective on solving highly complex, multi-system challenges.
But the ability to connect and simplify complexity isn’t just for healthcare. The same principles apply to finance, technology, manufacturing, and beyond. We bring this system-level thinking to every industry, helping organizations design AI and data strategies that are sustainable, adaptable, and built for long-term success.
Founded by Marinka Natale, an AI strategist and business technology architect, LynxIQ helps organizations bridge the gap between technology, strategy, and execution—ensuring that AI and analytics become true growth accelerators rather than disconnected tools.
Meet Our Team
Behind LynxIQ is a group of experts dedicated to transforming data into action and driving innovation in healthcare and AI
Marinka Natale
Marinka is an AI strategist, data expert, and business technology architect with a track record of helping companies bridge the gap between vision and execution. With expertise spanning healthcare, AI, analytics, and enterprise technology, she helps businesses navigate AI adoption, structure data ecosystems, and develop long-term, scalable technology solutions. She has led AI-driven transformations for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and global organizations, ensuring AI and analytics are not just implemented—but built to last.
Marinka is the Founder & CEO of LynxIQ, where she works with businesses across multiple industries to integrate AI, data strategy, and analytics-driven decision-making into their operations. She is also the Board Secretary for ReadyCT, supporting initiatives that drive education, workforce development, and technology literacy, and serves as the Chair of the IEEE Cloud Summit, leading global conversations on AI, cloud innovation, and data strategy.
Beyond enterprise AI, Marinka is a dedicated advocate for AI adoption in small businesses across Connecticut, helping local organizations leverage AI, harness data-driven insights, and scale efficiently.
Prior to founding LynxIQ, Marinka worked with Santa Barbara Actuaries and Cohere Health, where she applied advanced analytics, actuarial modeling, and AI-driven healthcare insights to improve value-based care, payment integrity, and predictive modeling for healthcare organizations.
Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles at COTA, SCIO, and Complex Care Solutions, where she helped design patient-focused solutions in value-based care. At Aetna and CIGNA, she led data science and analytics teams, developing models for payment integrity, digital patient engagement, and AI-powered healthcare solutions.
With over 20 years of experience in healthcare analytics, AI strategy, and data-driven business transformation, Marinka holds a Master of Management from Rensselaer, preceded by pre-graduate education in applied medical anthropology and epidemiology—giving her a unique system-level perspective on how data, AI, and human behavior intersect to drive business and societal impact.
Our Advisors
Patricia Carroll
For more than 30 years, Patricia RN-BC, RRT, MS, a registered nurse, and a respiratory therapist, and has established herself as a nationally recognized healthcare expert. She is a multi-award-winning writer, having published more than 100 articles in professional literature and five books.
Pat has written and produced multi-award-winning books and instructional videos for health professionals. Pat’s clinical experience includes adult and pediatric critical care , emergency care, home care, quality management, and infection prevention. She has provided classroom and clinical instruction in nursing, clinical technology programs and health literacy. In addition to her clinical practice, she has owned Educational Medical Consultants, LLC since 1986. She represents the primary immune deficiency (PI) group, advocating for health policy; patient education and working with CT Health Information Exchange to include the patient’s voice, needs, and point of view in designing this critical state resource
Judy Roman
Judy is a Marketing Professional with over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare and technology space. She has worked for companies such as WebMD and Aetna, helping to drive strategic marketing planning, new product development and execute successful marketing programs.
However, her passion is working with start-up companies to shape their vision, refine their go-to-market strategies, and define product development via customer discovery interviews.
Rick Munger
Rick is an entrepreneur and IT architect. His skills and experience range from User Interface design, Data design and Application Strategist. He has worked with and for many of the Fortune 100 companies creating systems for innovations, increased productivity and lower costs of operation.
Rick brings over 30 years of IT experience and knowledge from various industries such as manufacturing, warehousing, retail, oil & gas commodities, medical (hospital, skilled nursing and pharmacy), marketing, and insurance. He founded multiple companies, each focused on delivering superior products and services for a variety of clients. He has provided experience
design expertise for companies such as ESPN, Pitney Bowes, CIGNA, IBM, United Technologies, Otis Elevator, Sikorsky, Travelers, Lincoln Financial, Louis Dreyfus, Towers Perrin, Bozzutos and Computer Associates.
Rick is currently owner of Eiger Creative LLC, creator of the DosePlanner software system for pharmacy multi-med packaging. Rick lives with his family in Bristol, Connecticut.
Eileen Redmond
Eileen is an entrepreneur and digital product strategist helping tech starts-ups and product teams bring concepts to life. She believes that human-centered design combined with data analytics drives the most compelling and innovative solutions which truly make in impact in people’s lives. With 20 years of experience in the design and delivery of award-winning digital products.
Eileen founded a boutique agency focused on digital creative channels driving the product strategy and design for a variety of clients. Eileen has provided experience design expertise for Fortune 500 companies such as ESPN/Disney, Travelers Insurance, Hartford Life, Aetna Healthcare, and Steelcase.
Eileen is currently serving as President of the Connecticut User Experience Professionals Association (CT UXPA) with a mission to support and grow the UX community, and evangelize the discipline in Connecticut She is a life-long resident of Connecticut, living in West Hartford.
Jeff Harner
Jeff brings a lengthy career in health analytics and informatics to Best Doctors/Rise Health. Jeff was the Associate VP of Performance and Outcomes for Nationwide Better Health. He was responsible for analyzing outcomes across their business portfolio including Medical Management, Health Promotion, Disability and Absence Management, and Population Risk Assessment.
His work focused on providing information-based business intelligence and applying information and analytics to solve specific problems for clients and business leaders. Prior to his work with Nationwide Better Health, Jeff served for five years as the Vice President of Clinical Informatics at Cigna Health care. His experience also includes work as the CFO for HealthNet of Southern California. Jeff holds a degree in health care administration from Providence College and a masters in health care management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Alexis Bautz
Alexis is Associate Executive Director and oversees and monitors the development, implementation and growth of the quality improvement program. Alexis reports to the CEO and the Board of Directors regarding strategic quality improvement and control. She is also involved in regulatory compliance, quality award programs and accreditations.
Alexis is responsible for managing the activities associated with quality improvement projects and teaching techniques for system design, re-engineering & quality improvement outcomes. Alexis also oversees the Life Enrichment, Information Technology and the Digital Marketing programs.
Alexis is a graduate of The University of South Florida’s School of Aging Studies and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt through Purdue University’s College of Engineering. Ms. Bautz is currently pursuing an Executive Masters in Health Administration from the University of Central Florida. She is a Senior Examiner for AHCA-NCAL’s National Quality Award program, a Task Force Leader for the Coalition on Injury Prevention of Polk County, and a member of FHCA’s Performance Excellence Council and Public Relations Committee.
Mary Lou
Mary Lou has worked with large healthcare provider groups, health insurance companies and national customer accounts in key consultative roles. Her current role IBM Watson Health includes managing a team of analysts, consultants, and managers with budgetary responsibility of $12M. She develops and implements analytic strategies for key clients.
Prior to IBM, Mary Lou was the Analytics Director at the Bureau of TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid agency. She managed two teams of analysts, focusing on program integrity and general analytics. Mary Lou spent six years at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, where she developed program evaluations to measure the financial and clinical impact of care management, disease management, pharmacy management and utilization management programs. During her tenure at OptumHealth, the population health management division of UnitedHealth Group, Mary Lou worked with major accounts such as GE and Verizon to anticipate customer needs and provide actionable data on care management efforts. Mary Lou also spent five years at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago where she helped the hospital’s health information management department transition to electronic medical records.
Dr. Howard Underwood
Dr. Underwood, 1 of 2 MD/FSAs in the US, sits at the intersection of healthcare finance (actuary) and healthcare delivery (physician) developing deep data driven insights to power clinical transformation for value based care. He’s a proven informatics leader whose analytics provided critical decision support for our industry’s 2 largest turnarounds (ie, Aetna and HCSC).
Aetna’s market capitalization increased 10x, and Dr. Underwood’s analytics helped to reverse HCSC’s $1B loss to a $1B profit over his tenures in these 2 turnarounds.